Wormwood IV: The Final Chapter

Wormwood IV: The Final Chapter is a ten-level Halloween-themed episode WAD for Doom II, requiring Boom-compatible source ports, made by Zachary Stephens (Ribbiks), Grain of Salt, and Daniel Jakobsson (dannebubinga), and released on November 6, 2022. Unlike previous entries in the series, all maps are of a similar short-to-medium size, with the WAD showcasing a variety of different visual themes while focusing on challenging bite-sized combat puzzles and small-scale slaughter.

Custom content
The WAD makes use of a DeHackEd patch to create most of its custom changes. The color palette and colormap are also modified, replacing part of the desaturated red range (colors 16-31) with shades of dark violet/crimson and overwriting the range of blue (192-207) with shades of brown, with the shades of dark purple being placed in the magenta range (250-254) as a substitute for blue instead. Unlike previous entries in the series, greens are not given their usual neon hue and oranges are not increased in brightness either. A custom colormap lump in the form of a is included that simulates the appearance of fog as seen in  by making all colors turn to shades of gray with distance rather than darker shades of themselves or other colors. However, whenever the player fires a gun, the resulting muzzle flash will break the fog effect momentarily, as it increases the light level of the surroundings by briefly switching to a brighter colormap within the colormap lump before returning to the intended gray.


 * Avoid:A reddish-brown imp-like creature with an emaciated body, black claws, and a head without eyes that consists almost entirely of a mouth full of sharp teeth. It is practically invincible, possessing 100000 hit points, and will do massive damage with each attack, killing the player in one hit unless they have max health and armor. With each attack, it performs nine s and two s in a single tic, dealing upwards of 300 damage. The only way to survive is to flee from it, which is complicated by the fact that it moves very fast, out-pacing even the arch-vile. It does, however, have a rather high pain chance at around 66 percent, making it possible to stun it quite reliably, which will paralyze it for about half a second. Also, its ranged attack, which it will attempt quite frequently, instead of firing a projectile, will freeze it in place for about 2/3 of a second as if its pain state had been triggered, further aiding the player in their escape. It replaces the Wolfenstein SS.
 * Green cyberdemon:This custom cyberdemon only has 1000 hit points, and the wiring on its body is green instead of the usual red. It replaces the spider mastermind; as such, it can infight with the regular cyberdemon, though it is still immune to splash damage.
 * Cacodemon:The cacodemon's death animation has been altered slightly to make it rapidly implode once killed instead of slowly crumble, making it look more like a balloon that is being popped.
 * Ghost:A gray, corpse-like apparition that seemingly flies through the air, charging at the player. However, though they block the player from moving through them, they don't do any damage, nor can they be damaged themselves, serving merely as decorations and are in fact completely stationary, being moved only through the use of invisible conveyor belts. They replace the 'Pile of Skulls' (thing number 124).
 * Gold BFG:A golden variant of the BFG9000 with infinite ammo and no "safety catch" like the standard BFG and the rocket launcher have, meaning it will fire immediately when switched to and not require the fire button to be released first. It replaces the chainsaw.

The blue, red, and yellow keycards & skull keys are replaced with black, orange, and green variants, respectively, and the starting ammo for the pistol has been reduced to a single bullet instead of the usual 50.

Levels

 * by Ribbiks
 * by Grain of Salt
 * by dannebubinga
 * by Ribbiks
 * by Grain of Salt
 * by Ribbiks
 * by Grain of Salt
 * by Ribbiks
 * by dannebubinga
 * MAP10: . by Grain of Salt

Soundtrack

 * MAP01: "Mountain" by Koji Endo (from )
 * MAP02: "In Hiding" by Robert Prince (from Duke Nukem 3D)
 * MAP03: "Privateer's Hold" by Eric Heberling (from )
 * MAP04: "eflast.mid" by Ribbiks
 * MAP05: "The Castle of Barbican" by Kevin Schilder (from )
 * MAP06: "cg2.mid" by Ribbiks
 * MAP07: MIDI rendition of "Dan's Theme" by (from )
 * MAP08: "franken.mid" by Ribbiks
 * MAP09: MIDI rendition of "" by and
 * Title screen: "goom.mid" by Ribbiks
 * Intermission: "lov_3.mid" by Ribbiks
 * Text screen: "evil choir.mid" by unknown

Current records
The DSDA episode records for Wormwood IV: The Final Chapter are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on May 12, 2023.